


Birth

by lzclotho



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Birth, F/F, Family Issues, Motherhood, Pregnant, delivery, magic baby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-23
Updated: 2014-07-19
Packaged: 2018-01-02 10:57:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1055961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lzclotho/pseuds/lzclotho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regina’s pregnant and no one believes it’s Emma’s, including Emma. But the women’s troubled relationship and tie through Henry means Emma has stayed around. When Regina goes into labor, it’s up to Emma to deliver the baby. Then Emma and Regina struggle to make a family together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Birth

**Author's Note:**

> Each chapter started as a prompt fic on tumblr. They just really connected together, so I made them chapters in the same story.

 

Regina rubbed her lower back and then passed a soothing hand over her protruding abdomen with a smile lost in a mix of memories and wishes. The baby in her womb should have never been possible for at least a dozen different reasons. However, the top two were why she smiled since the first moment she had learned.

She had been told, as a young woman, that she could never bear a child. The devastation came after Leopold’s albeit unwelcome advances hadn’t produced a child in the first year. An old midwife had broken the news to her after the humiliating examination. Terrified of the dreams of murdering Snow already crowding her sleepless days and nights, Regina had been almost relieved. But as the years wore on, first the woodcutter’s children, and then young Owen, the urge to mother had grown until she’d begged Gold to find her a child. He’d brought her Henry. And she’d thought there could be nothing greater.

However, the second, and more astonishing reason she had smiled upon learning of her pregnancy, was the indisputable revelation that this had to be a child of true love. Regina hadn’t slept with anyone but Graham since coming to Storybrooke — until Emma Swan and a cold bedroll where they’d commiserated and comforted one another regarding their lost son.

Melding their magic to save Henry had saved his life — and created a new life. Even if Emma never believed, it was enough that Regina knew the truth.

Regina winced as the baby twisted and she remembered trying to share the good news with Emma. She cupped her hand over the baby’s kicking feet and rubbed in soothing circles. “All right, I’ll let us both nap for a bit,” she promised, making her way slowly up the staircase in her mansion.

Henry was in school and then, afterward, headed to the stables to meet up with his grandfather, David. 

Ruby was due by with Regina’s takeout from Granny’s around 6 pm. Regina would sigh, then smile whenever the craving hit — a burger piled high with onions and mushrooms and swiss cheese, smothered in gravy. It was so Emma Swan that it left Regina with no doubt who had ‘fathered’ her baby.

* * *

Emma rang the doorbell at 108 Mifflin as she held a bag of Granny’s takeout. Ruby had pressed it on her when the diner was suddenly packed just as the waitress had been preparing to take the meal to the mansion.

“Run it over for me, please?” the waitress had wheedled. Emma rolled her eyes.

“I’m not even going that way,” she protested.

“Your patrols start over that end of town every night,” Ruby had replied knowingly. 

And she did know, Emma sighed, finally accepting she was going to have to see Regina.

Flutters of both anxiety and anticipation battled for control of her stomach and Emma pressed her free hand against it. She drove by this place every patrol route, at least three or four times a night, looking up at the second floor windows — the one that remained on until nearly two or three a.m. regularly. She often saw Regina’s silhouette pacing, had watched the silhouette grow over the months, until Regina was often arching her back, pressing away pain with every step.

Emma had constantly battled the desire to leap at the trellis and scramble up it into Regina’s bedroom and soothe away every ache, every pain… She remembered all too intimately the feel of Regina’s body curling into hers in Neverland. The feel of lips mutually kissing away worried tears under the darkness of night.

The sound of her name on Regina’s lips whispered reverently as she came undone with Emma’s touch…

Fuck, Emma thought, feeling miserable. She knew what Regina was going through. Alone, pregnant, wondering what to do next, what would happen…

“God damn it!” Emma exploded, balling her fist as she slammed her hand against the front door. She hated what Regina Mills made her remember, what she made Emma feel… “Regina, open the door!”

There was no answer. Emma raised her fist again, but this time, she shoved not flesh, but magic, at the entry, and it shimmered and vanished.

“Regina!” Emma strode into the foyer, swinging the takeout. “Got your dinner from Granny’s. I’ll just leave it in the kitchen and you can get it later.”

The silence following Emma’s pronouncement lasted until she had her hand out to rematerialize the vanished door. A whimper reached her ears. She froze in place, turning to stare up the staircase from where, she knew, the sound had come.

“Regina?” Emma’s heart raced. She knew that whimper. It was pain. It was worry. It was Regina.

Another whimper, closer to a sharp cry this time, poured adrenaline into Emma’s body and she bounded for the staircase, grabbing the railing and leaping upward past the first several steps. Her boots would barely land on a step before they were leaving it for another. She was at the second floor landing in four leaps. “Regina!”

“Em…?” Regina’s voice was broken by a gasping breath. “Em…ma?” The woman was panting. Emma raced toward the sound. Regina’s bedroom door stood half open.

Reaching out, Emma was terrified what she would find. Had someone come to the house, taken advantage of Regina’s limited mobility and taken revenge? Would she find Regina laying in a pool of blood, dying from some mortal wound? Damn it, why had she ever left the woman alone? She knew better than anyone that enemies don’t just give up and go away. She should have doubled, even tripled, patrols here. She should have demanded Snow and David order the rest of the town to leave Regina alone.

“Regina?” Emma’s voice was a mere murmur now. Her palm contacted the door, and it was strange but she felt every fiber of the wood grain sliding against her skin, and suddenly heard her own hard breathing in her ears. “I…”

Emma stopped, frozen in place once more. Not by a sound, this time, but by a sight.

Regina was on the bed, rumpled sheets balled in her fists. The pain painted her face in scrunched patches of red and the tendons of her neck and arms were in sharp relief against her drenched naked skin.

The roundness of her belly was distorted and Emma realized why when Regina, eyes squeezed shut, screamed out incoherently and pulled at her knees to either side of her belly, Regina was in labor. Hard labor.

Emma took in the entirety of Regina’s body in seconds, from the lank sweaty hair sticking to her cheeks and forehead, to the splay of her legs and the already widening center of her, and the dark short hairs covering her womanhood. Then Emma realized that was not all Regina.

“The baby’s coming,” Emma gasped aloud. She ran into the adjoining bathroom, starting the bathtub’s warm water, and grabbing every towel in sight. Her thigh banged into the sink and she looked in the cabinet underneath, giving a small sound of victory when she came up with a first aid kit. She’d need the alcohol swabs.

When she returned to the bed, Regina was wide-eyed, staring at Emma, her hands wrapped around her calves. Emma patted a wet handcloth against Regina’s temple.

“Emma?” There was a breathlessness to Regina’s voice.

“Yeah, I… was bringing your dinner.” Emma backed away. “Here,” she laid a dry towel over Regina. “You’re going to get cold.” She glanced toward the no longer visible space between Regina’s legs. “How long? You didn’t call anyone.”

Regina bit her lip and threw her head back, clearly pushing her way through another contraction. “No one to call,” she said, finally, breathing heavily with every word.

Emma swallowed. “I’ll help.”

“Don’t nee—” Regina’s voice pitched upward as she experienced another contraction.

Grasping one of Regina’s hands on her legs, Emma squeezed it. “OK.” Regina’s hand squeezed hers through yet another contraction. Emma lifted the towel and examined Regina’s progress. 

One of Regina’s hands weakly tried to push away Emma’s head. “Em…” Brown eyes were filled with tears when Emma glanced up. Emma gave a sad twist of her lips to acknowledge the situation and straightened back up. “I’ve got some warm water. I’ll be right back.”

Emma soaked and twisted out one of the towels in the warm bathwater, then returned to the bed. She set it out between Regina’s legs and grasped the woman’s ankles. When Regina struggled, Emma slid her hands up soothingly along the calves. “All right. Now, I don’t think there’s much more. The baby’s head is already crowning. You’ll want to bear down steadily through the next contractions. Keep pushing.”

Regina nodded. Emma bit her lip in the middle of her answering smile. Regina’s eyes were doe brown in this moment meeting her gaze. Even sweaty hair sticking to her face, she was a stunningly beautiful woman.

The moment the final contractions began, Emma knew. She could see the glaze of pain wash out brown eyes, now almost obscured with tears. Regina squeezed her eyes shut, and Emma reached forward with the warm wet towel.

A tiny body slipped free of Regina’s and Emma wiped away birth matter. Once the baby was turned onto her back, Emma noticed the sex immediately, the squalling began. She started to lift the baby onto Regina’s belly. The woman had fallen back against the pillows and sheets.

It wasn’t until she was trying to extricate her pocket knife to cut the cord that the baby’s eyes, face pressed against Regina’s belly, opened. Emma was trying to hold the baby steady with one hand while fishing in her tight jeans pocket for the knife with the other.

The baby’s eyes were softly colored in the low light, and Emma realized with a start they were green. Not a vague blue, but unmistakably green. Emma’s green. She’d only met two other people with those green eyes. Her father, David, and her son, Henry.

The knife fumbled from her fingers with the realization. Regina groggily opened her eyes with the sudden motion of the bed as Emma scrambled to retrieve the knife.

“Eh… Emma?”

“Hey,” Emma’s voice was choked. “I… Just hang on. We need to get the afterbirth, and I… I’ve got to cut the cord.” She swallowed, her throat almost too full of emotion to speak. “You, uh… you okay?”

“Is she okay?” Regina asked instead.

Emma stroked over the baby girl’s back and pulled Regina’s hand onto it as well. “Yeah. Yeah, she’s okay. She’s okay. She’s… fine. She’s beautiful.” She watched Regina’s hand splay across the baby’s back. Tears soon obscured the sight and she swiped at them with the back of her arm. Regina gave a small grunt and murmur, but her lips unmistakably turned up in an exhausted smile.

Gathering herself together, Emma wiped her knife down with several alcohol swabs. Studying the cord for a panicked second, she suddenly remembered she’d need to tie it off. Quickly she bent over and pulled her boot laces out, hands shaking. Finally she tied off the cord and cut through it with the pocket knife.

“Regina,” Emma coaxed. “You’ve got to push once more.” 

Regina strained, half up on an elbow, and Emma felt the rippling of muscle where her hand rested on Regina’s belly. The placenta slipped free on the next contraction and Regina grunted with exhaustion. Emma folded the towel around the afterbirth and moved it aside. She’d have to get Regina and the baby to the hospital to make sure it was all out, and there were no complications. 

Emma brought another clean, warm damp towel between Regina’s thighs and wiped gently, cleaning her up. Regina stirred. Emma rubbed her belly soothingly. “Sorry.”

Regina said nothing, her eyes drifting from Emma to the baby on her belly. She moved her hand slightly on the baby’s back.

The newborn girl whimpered. Regina’s hand was joined by Emma’s, rubbing warm, soothing circles softly on the silk-smooth skin. The whimpering turned to barely audible breaths and then an unmistakable sucking noise.

Emma met Regina’s eyes as they both realized the baby was trying to turn her head and root to suck at the skin of Regina’s belly. “I think she’s hungry,” Emma said. “You… you wanna try…?” 

Regina’s legs settled together on the bed and she struggled to sit up with the baby still on her belly. Emma lurched forward to plump pillows. The gesture wrapped both her arms around Regina’s shoulders and she found herself pulling mother and baby against her in a tight embrace.

“Em?” Regina murmured. She sounded tired.

“Um, I’m sorry. I’ll…” Emma moved away and finished, businesslike, covering her own emotional mess, and settling Regina’s pillows. “You… uh, got it?”

Regina lifted the baby girl to her chest, resituating her fidgeting form so that she rooted first at the side and then found the nipple. Regina gasped suddenly.

“Regina? What happened?”

“Um, she found what she wanted,” Regina said sheepishly. She lowered her head to place a kiss atop dark wisps of hair, then nuzzled the baby’s temple with her nose. The sounds of the baby girl sucking gradually filled the room.

Emma closed her eyes and fell slowly, reverently, a petitioner for penitence, to her knees on the floor beside the bed. Her arms supporting her chin, she opened her eyes and gazed at mother and baby. “Wha… what’s her name?”

Regina’s gaze slipped benevolently over Emma’s. She lifted her near hand to caress a lock of Emma’s hair behind her ear. “I hadn’t decided. I thought we might… together?”

Emboldened by Regina’s touch, Emma lifted one hand from beneath her chin and reached out toward the baby’s cheek. With the back of a fingertip she stroked the satin skin. “I… it’s really not… I didn’t think my life was supposed to happen this way, y’know?”

Regina nodded. “Yes, dear. I… I know.”

Emma looked at the baby’s contented face and closed eyes and light dusting of dark hair. “Jenna,” she said softly.

Regina looked from Emma’s face to the baby’s head and nodded after a moment. She lowered her lips to the girl’s forehead and pressed her lips there softly. As she pulled away, she murmured in confirmation, “Jenna.”

Emma’s hand slipped over the top of Regina’s on Jenna’s bottom. “You… I… I owe you an apology, Regina,” she said.

“No, no apologies.”

“But all these months… I thought you were lying to me.”

“I know.”

Emma pulled away from the tenderness she didn’t feel she deserved shining from Regina’s gaze. She’d been horrible, leaving Regina to fend for herself for all this time. “We should probably get you and Jenna to the hospital, have Whale check you out. Make sure everything’s okay.” She was going to fix that now. Do everything necessary, and right, by Regina and Jenna.

“Emma,” Regina started, then paused with an exhale as Jenna released her breast. “It’s all right.” She shifted Jenna to her other breast. The position was a little more awkward, but eventually Jenna once again settled to nurse.

Emma had said nothing as she watched the most beautiful, natural act she’d ever witnessed in her life. And how beautiful was Regina as she did it?

“You… you okay if I call… Henry?” Emma wanted her whole family around her suddenly. Henry needed to be here. Needed to know it was going to be different, for all of them.

Regina looked up from brushing a finger along Jenna’s cheek and watching the girl nurse and nodded. “He’s at the stables with David.”

“Well, he should know he’s a big brother,” Emma said.

“All right.”

Emma reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, dialing quickly. She heard David answer the call and exhaled. “Um, David, could you bring Henry home? Regina’s house. Yes. It’s time for… a family meeting.”

She closed the call and returned the phone to her pocket. “He’ll be here soon.”

Regina was looking at her with furrowed brows. “Family meeting?”

“Yeah. We’re family, Regina.”

“Are we, Emma?”

Emma hesitated. She’d felt so confident. Maybe Regina didn’t want Emma as part of her life. Yeah, so she’d helped name the baby, but Regina hadn’t exactly ever said that she wanted Emma in her life, after Emma rejected her the first time.

“What do you want, Regina?”

“What I’ve always wanted, Emma. My happy ending.”

Emma looked from Jenna, already dozing in Regina’s arms, to Regina. “Will you settle for a broken Savior, who’s going to keep making mistakes, probably forever, about nearly everything?”

“I don’t settle for anything.” Emma’s face fell. Regina asked suddenly, “Would you take Jenna, please?”

Emma reached out and gingerly collected Jenna, wrapped in her towel, from Regina’s arms. Even as Emma backed up, Regina pushed herself off the bed and got unsteadily to her feet. 

Emma looked panic-stricken from Jenna and her completely occupied hands, desperate to reach out a third arm if she’d had one to steady Regina, even as Regina’s hand came to rest lightly on Emma’s forearm wrapped around Jenna.

The brunette leaned across Jenna, lips a breath away from Emma’s. So close she made Emma close her eyes or risk going cross-eyed. 

Then warm breath and words brushed Emma’s lips. “Emma, I want and need _you_ , mistakes and all.”

Emma let herself linger in the kiss Regina pressed to her lips, closing her eyes, tears squeezing out from beneath the lids.

“I’d better get into a dressing gown before your father arrives with our son,” Regina said when she pulled back slowly. Emma opened her eyes and before her stood Regina, nude body with new plusher curves freshly flushed by pregnancy.

“That would probably be best,” Emma replied unsteadily though she had tried to choke back the lust that would have buckled her knees were it not for the baby she held preciously in her arms.

 


	2. Chicken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> David arrives and learns the truth about Regina's baby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt from tumblr: Anonymous asked: Chicken (this one is gonna be cool, cause there are sssooo many ways that that can be worked with... so excited. :))

Emma was just transferring Jenna to Regina’s arms when the front door downstairs could be heard slamming open. Adrenaline flooded her veins, tensing her muscles and she looked around quickly analyzing objects for their defensive weapon potential.

 _Thomp.Thomp. Thomp-thomp. Whomp._  Rapid, heavy footfalls that made it sound like an army was coming resounded on the staircase.

Emma grabbed a floor lamp.

Regina gasped. The bedroom door flung inward. Emma shouted and swung the lamp like a fighting staff.

Metal and glass shattered and bent against the forearm of… David!

“What the—!” David darted his other arm out and stopped the forward rush of the smaller figure beside him.

“Henry!” Regina shouted with surprise.

Emma’s eyes darted from her father’s face to Henry’s. “Mom!” the boy shouted then pushed his grandfather’s arm aside and rushed forward.

Emma stared as Henry brushed hard past her and rushed to Regina. “Kid!”

“Mom,” Henry said, eyes only for the brunette on the bed. “Are you OK?” He drew to a halt in front of Regina, his gaze searching her body intently. Then he tentatively reached toward the towel-wrapped bundle in Regina’s arms. “Is she OK?”

“She’s OK. We’re both all right, dear,” Regina’s voice was gentle, reassuring as she leaned into her son’s arms going around her shoulders and enfolding her and Jenna.

Emma stared in bewilderment. David moved alongside her.

Henry was cooing to his new sister, smiling big and brushing lightly on her dark fluffs of hair.

“You knew,” Emma said. “You knew, didn’t you?” she demanded of him. He’d been so happy coming here, staying here, while Emma had been fighting with herself for months.

Henry turned to Emma, his arm staying around his mother’s shoulder. “Yes, I knew.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Emma knew her anguish was plain, but she was at sea here, shameful of her actions, ignoring Regina, disbelieving the woman. She felt like she had abandoned the woman, as she had once been abandoned, and that would never sit well on her mind.

“Because you’d have believed me, but not her. You were a chicken, Emma,” he accused. “My mom needed someone who would be there for her. Not someone who would run away because they couldn’t believe.” He stopped when Regina put a hand on his on her shoulder.

“Even after everything that’s happened,” he added after a moment, “You find it so hard to believe.”

“Henry,” Regina started.

“Kid, my life —”

Henry cut her off. “I know. I  _know_ , OK? But you’re still afraid it will all disappear. This is Storybrooke, not Brigadoon,” he added ruefully.

Emma’s eyes filled with tears. Her bottom lip quivered.

“Henry.” Regina moved her hand, pushing off Henry’s arm. “It’s all right now,” she looked up into her son’s face looking down into hers.

“She accepted the baby? She accepted  _you_?” he asked more intently.

“She knows Jenna is hers,” Regina said.

Henry looked at Emma. “Do you? Do you really believe?”

Emma slowly lowered to her knees on the floor, as she had earlier, now between Regina and Henry, looking up into both their faces. She put a hand on Henry’s arm and Regina’s knee before answering.

“I believe, Henry. I’m not going anywhere. Not anymore. This chicken has come home to roost.”

“Emma?” David’s voice sounded strangled and he cleared his throat as all three looked at him. He was pale, his eyes wide, his jaw half open, eyes darting between each of them. “Regina’s baby is…?”

“Is mine,” Emma affirmed. Her hand slipped from Regina’s knee to the towel covering Jenna. “She’s  _ours_.” His shoulders slumped. “Would you like to meet… your granddaughter?” Emma asked.

He didn’t move for the longest breath and then he nodded almost stupidly, a funny jerk-shake of his head. He was clearly still processing the impossible news.

Emma, with Henry guarding her, lifted Jenna from Regina’s arms, offering a reassuring smile to the brunette with a twitch of her lips, and then turned to her father. He took a stumbling step forward. Emma moved the baby aside in case he should fall. When he righted himself and reached toward the bundle, she brought Jenna forward once more.

The baby blinked up at him — Emma’s eyes — and his face broke. He was once more a brand new father — Emma’s father — having her thrust into his arms, to send her away. Tears poured forth.

“Oh god,” he murmured, so full of pain. “I’m so, so sorry.” He said it over and over again. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

He pulled Emma into his arms, baby Jenna snug between their bodies and he cried into Emma’s shoulder, as she pressed her face, crying too, into his chest.

Henry helped his mother to her feet, holding her up around the waist as she walked to Emma’s side. Emma sensed Regina’s presence and stepped back from her father. Regina reached across Emma’s body and adjusted Jenna’s towel.

David stepped backward and nodded, wiping at his face. “Regina,” he said quietly, no reproach in his tone.

“David,” Regina replied, and Emma heard no malice, no derision in the address, only quiet pride.

After a moment of meeting his daughter’s gaze, David dipped his head in acknowledgement and withdrew. He pulled the bedroom door closed quietly behind him and they were all silent as his footfalls departed down the stairs, out the front door, and that door closed behind him.

Henry walked around in front of Emma and Regina.

“You really OK?” he asked again. He was looking at Regina.

“Yeah, Kid,” Emma answered. She leaned her head against Regina’s on her shoulder and both of them looked down into Jenna’s blinking face. “Yeah, we’re gonna be fine.”

A flash made Emma look up. Henry was just lowering Regina’s phone. “A memory,” he said with a smile.

“Yeah, Kid.” Although, Emma didn’t think she’d ever forget this day. She passed Jenna to Regina’s arms and wrapped her own arms tenderly around the brunette’s waist, resting her chin on the fine boned shoulder to look down into her daughter’s beautiful green eyes. “Yeah,” she murmured.

Henry beamed and snapped another picture.

In which Regina was smiling.


	3. Birth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The arrival of Snow…A continuation of “Birth” and “Chicken” in the verse of magic!baby for SwanQueen. 
> 
> Author’s Question: Do things still qualify as ficlets if they are 1898 words?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> iamparadoxalpoised asked: Blanket... In continuance from "Chicken"? *wet Bambi eyes batting eyelashes*  
> Hey, iamparadoxalpoised. I finished up this for you. I hope you enjoy!

 

Henry snicked the bedroom door into place as Emma waited uncertainly in the corridor holding Jenna in her arms. “Now Mom’s asleep I think we should put Jenna down, too,” he said, sounding a certainty that belied his eleven years.

“So, where to?” Emma asked. Henry waved her to the next door on the same side as Regina’s room. The door was ajar, and he pushed into a sunshine-filled space, stepping aside so Emma could enter with Jenna.

The walls were the first thing Emma noticed. They weren’t Regina’s usual black and white motif. They were the palest green. The window drapes were a slightly darker green shade, pulled open with soft linen strips of matching green. The window faced the front of the house and the late afternoon sun poured its rays into the space. Tucked beside the window was a black oak rocking chair, cushions in the same pale green.

Stepping inside, Emma noticed the tiny wardrobe, also in black oak, with the wide surface, prepared as a changing table. Next to it stood a bassinet in matching wood, the frame shaped like a flower basket on a swing. Regina had obviously been well-prepared to take care of Jenna all by herself. Emma exhaled out the shame. She wanted to make up for lost time so badly.

There was, however, one thing life had taught her. There was never any going backward. You could only make better choices going forward. At least hope to, anyway. She looked down at the bundle in her arms and noticed Jenna was fast asleep.

“You sleep now, Jenna,” she murmured, pressing her lips to the baby’s forehead before placing the baby in the bassinet, its basket swaying slightly on the swing-like arch.

Henry leaned on the changing table and looked into the bassinet. “Mom wanted the light in here to be good, like she knew the baby would be.”

Emma swallowed. “Yeah, isn’t some of this your stuff from when you were little?”

“No. Hand-me-downs isn’t really Mom’s style. My baby stuff’s in the attic. She said it’s mine. For whenever I have kids.” He laughed softly.

“I hope you’re planning to wait a while for that to happen, kid.” She patted his shoulder. “Did she know she’d have a girl?” she asked Henry, fingering the green curtains. _Green, huh, Regina_ , she asked silently. _You really did believe_.

“She didn’t _want_ to know, but I think she guessed kinda early,” Henry said. “It’s not like there were any boy parts involved in this, y’know?”

Emma blushed. “What the heck do you know about how babies are made, kid? You’re eleven.”

“I’ve known since I was six, Emma, when Mom told me I was adopted.” Henry’s face fell at his own words. “I… I really wasn’t very understanding about that.”

“Why would you be mad at her? I always was so angry at my parents for giving me up. Even when I had a rough time in foster care, I was more angry at my parents.”

“Because she was so similar to me.” He pushed at his dark hair, which Emma admitted, was a lot like Regina’s. “I thought she was lying, and I couldn’t figure out why she would say she wasn’t my mother.”

“That’s messed up,” Emma said, reaching out to soothe Jenna who was stirring. “I guess we better let somebody sleep.” She straightened and was going to the curtains to darken the room when the doorbell sounded downstairs.

Looking out past the curtains, Emma noticed David’s truck at the curb. She sighed. “It’s David. And probably Mary… Snow.”

Henry hurried out of the room. “I’ll let them in before they ring again and wake someone.”

* * *

Her parents. Emma’s hands dampened at the thought of seeing them. They had been working on their relationship since Neverland, both supportive of Emma’s rejection of Regina’s news that she was pregnant with her child. Now that Emma knew the truth and would be taking care of Regina and Jenna, would the relationship slide backward once again?

David and Snow had remained in opposition to Regina, continuing to push Emma about taking Henry and going back to the Enchanted Forest. Snow was still looking to become pregnant herself. Emma couldn’t count the number of times she’d listened to Snow talking about her fertility. She had appreciated every call from the station in those moments. “Gotta take this,” she had said.  She had stopped adding “Mom” to her statements somewhere around the fourth month. It went without remark.

Footfalls sounded on the staircase and Emma turned from the window to face her parents.

“Emma?” Henry’s voice was quiet, knowing as he did that Jenna slept in the room.

She crossed the space and opened the door. “Yeah, kid, I’m still here.”

“She all right?” Henry asked.

“She’s sleeping,” Emma replied softly. Her gaze tracked from Henry’s face to Snow’s, following up the woman’s hand and arm that rested on Henry’s shoulder. “Snow,” she said quietly. It was cautious.

“Emma,” Snow replied, tone just as cautious. “David said —”

“Yeah,” Emma said, cutting her off.

“I thought I should… see you,” Snow said.

“Yeah, I’m here.”

Snow winced. “There are ways, Emma…”

Emma struck a hand crosswise through the air. “No. Regina didn’t lie. I was wrong.”

Snow’s eyes went round and her lower lip quivered. She inhaled and took her hand from Henry’s shoulder. “So it…”

“ _She’s_ beautiful. _We_ named her Jenna,” Emma declared firmly.

“So.. the baby… is a girl?”

Emma nodded. Snow tried to look past Emma’s shoulder. She moved aside. “She’s sleeping right now,” Emma said quietly.

Snow took a hesitant step forward and stopped again, her gaze taking in the room. Emma saw her mother’s eyes fill with tears, then saw the jaw firm. Only one tear escaped the iron control suddenly slamming down over Snow’s face.

Emma stepped in front of Snow and blocked further entry. It’s then she realized that Snow has something in her hands. It’s… it can’t be, but it looked remarkably like… She’s still staring at it when Snow noticed that her eyes were no longer on Snow’s face.

Snow pulled the object out of view, but then hesitantly returned it to the front of her body. “I, uh,” she stutters. “It’s a blanket. Like…like yours.” Emma found her hands full of the soft hand-crocheted blanket. She fingered the purple ribbon. “Purple is for royalty.”

“You can’t have just made this,” Emma said. She looked over her shoulder toward Jenna’s bassinet. “Are you giving this to me?” she asked, to be clear.

Snow looked at the bassinet and then back to Emma’s eyes and nodded.

Emma walked away from Snow, reaching into the bassinet. She left the towel Jenna had been wrapped in since birth inside and instead tucked the new blanket around the tiny body and cradled her daughter, now yawning and stretching as she wakened.

Snow stepped forward. She tucked a dragging tail of the blanket inside and glimpsed the face of the baby. The tiny face was scrunched up in a yawn, eyes closed, thin dark hair sworled atop her head. She looked at Emma worriedly.

Nudging her daughter’s cheek, Emma cooed, “C’mon, kidlet.”

Snow watched her daughter’s finger slip over the rounded cheek and then the scrunched face smoothed out, jaw working in a mimic of nursing, and when Emma’s fingertip slipped over the pert little nose, wide eyes opened. Snow fell back at the sight of green.

“She has beautiful eyes, doesn’t she?” A voice spoke from the doorway. 

* * *

Snow turned and saw Regina leaning on the doorframe. In a dressing gown, the brunette looked so rumpled and tired eyed that for a moment, Snow’s jaw fell open. But then she lifted her chin and closed her mouth.

Before she could speak, Snow was startled by Emma’s sudden movement.

“Regina.” Snow’s daughter left her side and gallantly put out an elbow, which Regina took, then Emma led her to the rocking chair where she sat. Regina gathered Jenna to her chest in the blanket as Emma settled the baby into her arms. The baby moved restlessly and Emma and Regina behaved as if they have forgotten Snow was even present.

The sense of dismissal rankled and the pain goaded Snow. Snow felt the pull down on her lips watching Emma lean in. Emma brushed Regina’s cheek with her lips then the top of the baby’s head. Then Emma righted herself and turned to Snow.

“It’s time for something to eat,” Emma said. “You staying?” she asked.

Snow was bewildered by the request. She shook her head, eyes darting from Emma to Regina and back again. “No, I… I can’t … don’t… don’t do this, Emma. Please.”

“I’m headed down to the kitchen. Regina needs something to eat.” Snow felt outside her body hearing the comment, as if it had been spoken to someone else. Not her, certainly not Emma’s mother.

“No,” Snow said firmly, finally. Then she rushed out of the room, fled down the stairs, and didn’t pull up until she slapped both hands against the door of David’s truck. Impact with the metal stung her palms and broke the dam holding back her tears. David was at her side in an instant.

She turned into his chest, feeling his arms come around her back and feather through the nape of her hair. “David!” she cried out. “It’s really true!” Her voice broke with her anguish. Regina had not only taken Emma from her as a baby, but was now raising not one, but two, children when Snow had raised none.

* * *

Emma stared at the empty space where her mother had stood. Rejection washed through and weakened her muscles. She leaned on the frame of the door to support legs gone numb. She told herself she hadn’t hoped. She hadn’t believed it would go any differently. She heard only her mother’s voice, in the Echo Cave, admitting to wanting another baby because she was disappointed she’d not raised Emma, disappointed in how Emma had turned out.

“Emma?” Regina’s voice threw Emma out of her self-directed thoughts and immediately she returned to Regina’s side at the rocking chair.

“I’ll get some food and bring it up, all right?”

“I’m all right for now.”

Emma searched Regina’s face for a moment. “You sure?”

Regina’s hand pulled hers from the arm of the chair to the blanket holding their daughter. 

"Yes, I’m sure. Sit for a while.”

Emma felt antsy, but Regina’s hand on hers was soothing, so much so that she looked down to wonder if the woman fed her a bit of suppression magic. But there’s only the warmth of skin and contact. She realized then she hadn’t even gotten a hug from Snow. Emma pulled a straightback chair close and sat down. Her head propped onto her hands to watch Jenna whom Regina had adjusted to nurse.

Tears stung at her eyes but she could not stop their fall. She dropped her head onto the rocking chair arm and felt Regina’s hand slide over the top of her hair.

There was a vague shift in the lighting around Emma but she shut her eyes more tightly rather than lift her head to search it out. The door snicked closed and Regina’s hand stilled on the back of her head.

“Henry,” Regina supplied, “took another picture.”

“Oh.”

 


	4. Vital Signs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Determined to be responsible for her new family, Emma takes Regina and Jenna to Storybrooke Hospital.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to paradoxalpoised for a look-over on this bit. Dedicated to everyone who asked for more in this series…And a special note to darkbluemint: here’s the doctor visit.

**Vital Signs**

Emma sat with Henry in the corridor, hands alternately rubbing at her knees through her jeans and twisting her fingers together. Her gaze darted to Henry whenever he scuffed his sneakers on the floor and interrupted the silence, but she quickly snapped her attention back to the two doors in the opposite wall.

Behind the left one, a nurse and lab tech had disappeared with Jenna, to take her vital signs and perform other tests they said were necessary to evaluate the newborn baby’s health. Behind the right hand door, Dr. Whale and another nurse were examining Regina, Jenna’s mother.

Trouble was, Emma was Jenna’s mother, too, and they were not telling her anything.

Emma shot to her feet at the squalling and banged her way into the left hand room. “What are you doing to her?” she demanded.

In an instant she saw Jenna, naked, on the examination table. The nurse had a steadying hand on the baby’s bare chest. Most of Jenna was mottled red and her arms and legs were thrashing. All except the leg being held by the lab tech lifting a vial away from a tiny foot which he held firm.

Jenna continued screaming. Emma glared at the tech. Slowly, like one might with a bomb about to explode, he took a step back and put his hands up in front of himself. “I was… it’s ne..ces…blood type. Check for… conditions.” His voice quaked more the longer he spoke and the closer Emma stalked.

She shouldered aside the nurse and scooped Jenna into her arms using the blanket that had been spread out beneath her. The baby was shaking; so was Emma.

Taking a deep breath, Emma brushed her lips against Jenna’s forehead, then pushed her nose gently into Jenna’s cheek. All the while she murmured soft cooing sounds like she’d heard Regina do on the drive over to Storybrooke Hospital.

Gradually Jenna quieted, and her breathing calmed. The alarming blotchy redness subsided and the baby girl’s darker skin tone, a heritage from Regina, became apparent once more.

“Love you, Jenna,” Emma spoke clearly at last, swaying with the baby in her arms. Jenna’s green eyes blinked and Emma shifted one hand free to tuck a stray lock of dark hair from beneath the knitted cap provided by the hospital staff. She then kissed Jenna’s forehead again.

At pressure on her arm, Emma turned to find the nurse looking up at her timidly. “What?” she demanded though her voice was soft.

“We still have more tests, Sav—” Emma’s glare deepened. “Sheriff,” the nurse tried again. Emma’s brow smoothed out slightly.

“You promise you won’t hurt her again?” Emma asked.

“No doubt she’ll cry again. It’s all new sensations to her after all, the darling thing,” the nurse stated, giving the baby’s cheek a rub with her thumb. “Please wait outside?” she asked Emma.

“Be careful with her,” Emma insisted though she did slowly put Jenna back on the examination table. She turned to the tech. “You got it?”

“Yes, ma’am, sheriff,” he gulped each word, looking wide-eyed and frightened.

Emma started for the door only to hear a woman cry out in pain.

Jerking it open, she flung herself at the next door, wrestling with the knob in her once more shaking hands until it gave way under her demand. The door crashed inward and she glared.

“Get away from her!” Emma asserted. Dr. Whale was restraining Regina with an arm across her chest while a nurse held the woman’s leg off the floor. The brunette was yelling at him, “Unhand me, you imbecile!”

Regina she spotted Emma in the doorway and demanded, “Is Jenna all right?” 

“Uh? Yeah, yeah.” Emma strode forward, slapping the door shut. Regina pulled her foot from the nurse’s grip and shoved at Whale. Emma reached her. “You, OK?”

“I heard her crying,” Regina said. She was in a hospital gown with the front gaping open. Brown eyes pleaded with her. “Are you sure she’s all right?”

Emma took one of Regina’s hands and pulled her to her chest then lifted her chin to squarely meet her worried eyes. “I will let nothing happen to her. Or you,” she added firmly. She turned to Whale. “Why didn’t you let her go?”

“We were in the middle of an exam, Sheriff,” he replied. “The patient can’t just up and leave.”

“She’s a brand new mother, you fucking let her do whatever she needs, you got that?” Emma felt Regina’s hand flex in her own and squeezed slightly in reassurance.

He glared; she glared. He threw his hands up. “Fine. Whatever. You’re doing well, as far as we can tell,” he finally said to Regina. “But you have to rest. You can’t jump up like that. You’re more likely to hurt yourself right now. No matter what’s going on with your baby.”

Emma felt Regina pull away from her and watched her gather the sides of her gown in the middle of her chest. “You’re not OK?” Emma asked, looking between Regina and Whale.

“The birth was a strain,” Whale said.

“I know that. I was there. And I’ve done this once myself,” Emma retorted. “What else is wrong with Regina?”

“She’s anemic and tired.”

“I’ll recover. I just need a little time,” Regina insisted.

“We’re awaiting the results of some labs,” Whale said. “Until then, I would really appreciate it if you didn’t go jumping off beds and pushing your heart so hard.”

Emma looked from Whale to Regina. The woman’s throat moved as she swallowed. Apparently she’d already been told of possible test outcomes. “What’s wrong with her heart?”

Regina gripped Emma’s hand and pushed it away, separating herself from Emma’s hold entirely. “Doctor,” she warned in a voice that had frozen men in their tracks in another world. Dr. Whale had started to open his mouth; he snapped it shut.

When Emma glared at him though, looking equally capable of evisceration, he spoke non-specifically. “We won’t know any more until the test results.”

“When will you get those back?”

“Tomorrow.”

“All right. Can she go home?”

He looked from Regina to Emma and took a step away, giving them room. “Yes. I’ll check on Jenna’s tests and see when we can get them both on their way.”

He and the nurse left Emma and Regina alone in the room. Regina slid slowly off the examination table and turned her back on Emma. The hospital gown dropped, leaving Emma staring at a gorgeous naked back. Emma stuffed her hands in her pockets and turned away, unsure of what to say in the silence. She heard no more fabric movement and chanced a glance over her shoulder toward the corner where Regina stood.

Still naked, the brunette had stopped attempting to dress, leaning hard on a nearby sink counter. Her head was bowed and her shoulders were shaking.

Emma turned quickly and reached out, lifting Regina’s chin and tucking the dark head underneath her jaw as she held her tightly. Strongly she stroked the muscled back as the front of her shirt dampened with tears. “I promise I’ll help,” she said.

Regina pulled away from Emma, and in the brief look from brown eyes, Emma wasn’t sure she saw belief in her, but she was determined to prove herself as both another mother to Jenna and a true partner to Regina.

The brunette sat down on a small chair beside the exam table and reached for the small stack of her clothing, a pair of underwear, a bra, and a dark blue shirtdress she had taken to wearing in her last months of pregnancy. Emma dropped to her knees when Regina started to stretch forward in an attempt to put on her underwear but a groan of pain escaped from beneath her bitten lip.

Solicitously Emma slid the underwear over first one foot then the other. Hands fell to her shoulders as her own fingers traced up muscled calves, then over dainty knees, and Regina lifted up so the garment could be pulled over her hips. Emma closed her eyes blocking her gaze from Regina’s apex even though behind her eyelids the details from both helping Regina give birth and their intimacies in Neverland played over and over again.

* * *

 

“Bring the baby back in two weeks for a checkup,” Dr. Whale said to Regina as she settled into the wheelchair with the help of an orderly. They were going home. The nurse placed Jenna, wrapped in her blanket, in Regina’s arms across her lap.

Emma stood off to the side, hands tucked into her back pockets, the eternal sign of the other woman’s discomfort and uncertainty in any and all situations. Emma had accepted she was Jenna’s other parent and asserted she intended to take care of things, but clearly she didn’t want to resume an intimate relationship with Regina. Emma seemed to have an aversion to looking at her. They would be a family, in the way Regina had demanded of them for Henry before Neverland: in name only. Though she wanted to, Regina honestly did not know how to recreate their relationship.

Tired and worn and, now she knew, anemic, Regina felt beaten up by life in a way she hadn’t in a great many years. Having Jenna was supposed to be the beginning of her happy ending but, while she loved her daughter, it seemed the rest of the pieces would not so beautifully fall into place. She looked down into Jenna’s sleeping face and traced a fingertip longingly over lips shaped just like Emma’s.

“We can go. I’ve got the prescriptions,” Emma said abruptly, and Regina’s head jerked up to see her waving several pieces of paper as an orderly walked away. “Vitamins for you,” Emma said, looking at her. Regina’s stomach fluttered in response to something she thought she saw in Emma’s eyes before it vanished and Emma strode quickly away into the parking lot.

A few moments later Emma was back, driving the cruiser in which they’d come to the hospital. Henry pushed her wheelchair down the sloping ramp and off the sidewalk.

* * *

 

“Here you go,” Emma said, looking up at the mansion from behind the wheel of the sheriff’s cruiser. “Henry,” she laid an arm over the seat to talk their son in the back. “Would you take Jenna upstairs while I help your mom out?”

“You sure?” he asked.

Stepping out and meeting Henry as he emerged from the backseat on the driver side of the car, Emma responded, “Yeah, you can totally handle the kidlet. I’ll be in to check on her. Just put her in the bassinet, ‘k?”

Henry went quickly around to the other side, opening the door. Once he was leaning inside, Emma spread her forearms over the roof of the cruiser and followed Henry’s progress with Jenna’s carrier. He was definitely comfortable with his role of big brother, making Emma sigh softly as she compared his comfort unfavorably with her lack of it. She heard the squeaky sounds of leather and door hinges as Regina tried to move herself from the front passenger seat. Smacking the roof, she hurried around to find Regina straining as she wrestled using the door to get to her feet.

“I gotcha,” Emma said. “Hang on.” She moved forward, arms out to catch the brunette around the waist.

Regina resisted her touch, but she was clearly tired from the trip and unsteady on her feet, and her hand shook trying to push away Emma’s forearm. Emma bit her lip remembering how Regina had pushed her away in Neverland, too. She’d been on the bedroll closest to Regina’s since Snow and Charming made it clear they wouldn’t have anything to do with her. But Emma had known they needed Regina realistically to get through the shitty situation, so she’d protected her from the others.

Just as she had the first evening in Neverland, Emma threw her arm around Regina’s shoulders. Only this time she didn’t have a blanket as a buffer. “Come on, you can lay down.”

“I’d rather not,” Regina protested.

“What do you need?”

“Jenna will need feeding soon. I should go to the nursery.”

“I can’t carry you up the stairs.”

“You don’t have to carry me at all,” Regina huffed, pushing against Emma with her elbows. “I can use my magic.”

“Have you even tried it once since we got back?”

As an answer, Regina snapped her fingers. Nothing happened. She scowled. Emma stepped forward. Regina inched away, still glaring. “I am not an invalid.”

“You just had a baby, Regina. It’s normal to feel weak and tired.”

“I am not weak!” Regina shoved out hard with her fists. She fell back against the rear passenger door when Emma let her go in surprise to rub the certain-to-bruise space in the middle of her sternum.

“No,” Emma agreed with a wince, “you’re not. I’m sorry I said that.”

Regina’s mask tried to form. Emma could see the strain in the darkening brown orbs.

“Let me carry you inside?” Pride warred with exhaustion now. She begged, so Regina wouldn’t have to. “Please?”

Regina didn’t say anything, but the dip of her chin was enough. Emma moved gingerly close, maintaining eye contact, and smiling gently the entire time. Bending her knees she lifted the other woman with one arm behind her back and the other scooping under Regina’s knees. Helpfully Regina put her arms loosely around the back of Emma’s neck.

Emma squeezed Regina closer. The dark head fell softly against her collarbone. Emma couldn’t stop her pinched gasp of pain. Then she held her breath, moving quickly up the walkway.

She probably imagined the lips pressed tenderly to the skin inside her open shirt collar.

.

 


	5. Midnight (in the Garden of Good and Evil)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Midnight feedings bring Emma and Regina together, trying to make tiny, hesitant their broken relationship even while Emma learns about newborn baby care.

 

Regina rolled onto her back searching her fuzzy awareness for the source of whatever had awakened her. It had been three weeks, give or take, because honestly she was so occupied with Jenna, or Henry, or tiptoeing around Emma Swan every day, Regina was beginning to lose track.

Her chest hurt all the time, though it hurt less when she was with Jenna and more when she looked at Emma. During the day she saw almost nothing of the blonde. Apparently she took Henry to school, put in a few hours on patrol, and then returned, pushing her way in the door -- "You pick the lock?!" Regina had said before slapping a key in the startled woman's hand. She'd make simple sandwiches for Regina's lunch, taking nothing for herself, and disappear again until she hauled Henry home for homework and dinner.

But Regina knew she hadn't taken night shifts at the station, since David was the only one to ever answer the phone. Emma brought meals from the diner most of the time, but occasionally she brought dishes Regina was sure Granny had never had on the menu. Like Boston Clam Chowder and a corned beef brisket. Emma let Regina do everything with Jenna, never stepping in once, only handling Henry’s night time routine as he finished his homework and readied for bed.

During the day, Regina expressed extra milk and saved it. Each morning nipples and bottles sat in the dish drainer, clearly washed and sanitized. But not once had a sound from Jenna awakened Regina in the middle of the night.

She was glancing at the moonlight’s pattern on the wall, filtered through her apple tree in the yard, when she heard the out of place sound that must have finally seeped into her unconscious, exhausted mind enough to wake her: Jenna was whimpering.

It twisted something inside Regina’s stomach, like Henry’s sounds had when she was a baby. Careful not to make quick movements, Regina rose from bed and pulled on her dressing gown, belting it as she shuffled across the bedroom floor to the door and peeked around its edge into the hallway beyond.

Silence and dark emptiness greeted her.

The knowledge that Henry had always awakened many times in the nights, needing a diaper change, or a feeding, or simply to be rocked back to sleep, and the fact of those used bottles, accompanied Regina to the nursery door.

A breath of space separated door and frame, so it didn’t make a sound when Regina eased it inward. Before she could go all the way, however, a sight stopped her.

Emma Swan stood with her back to the door, looking out the window of the nursery. Blonde hair tumbled down to a white tank top and cherry red boy shorts practically winked at Regina in the shadows. She immediately recognized the ensemble as the same that had greeted her when she visited Emma’s room at Granny’s on that first morning in Storybrooke. The white of the shirt was so crisp it glowed in the moonlight as though it was under a UV lamp.

The woman’s legs and feet were bare, and when she turned, the movement accompanied a sucking sound and Regina suddenly knew why Emma held Jenna in her arms, holding a bottle up for the baby.

“Not so fast, kidlet,” Emma’s voice was mere breath on the air as she lowered her head to brush her lips on Jenna’s forehead.

Jenna startled, her arms and legs flailing. A tiny whimpering cry fluttered into the air of the room and Emma’s face changed from calm to worried. The other woman tried to return the bottle, but Jenna’s calm had been irrevocably disrupted.

Regina’s hand flexed on the door; she was torn between the desire to intervene, familiar as she was with these movements from raising Henry, and the realization that Emma stayed here every night, intercepting Jenna’s needs so Regina had been able to sleep without interruption. She felt Emma would startle as Jenna did, should her actions be uncovered.

Emma didn’t turn all the way toward the door, and Regina kept watch through the small space as she tread a small circle on the floor, lifting Jenna to her shoulder and rubbing her back.

The cries became little more than sniffles as Jenna responded to Emma’s care.

Resting her hand on the door, Regina oversaw Emma taking Jenna to the changing table. With only minor trouble -- Jenna kept kicking her legs free of Emma’s grasp -- the woman managed to change and dispose of Jenna’s dirty diaper.

Before Emma could turn toward the bassinet and no doubt see Regina, she slipped away on silent footsteps, her heart pounding, back to her room. She had no idea what to say. Emma obviously wanted this part of her actions secret for a reason. Moving carefully back under her sheets and blanket, Regina glanced at the bedside clock only to realize it was barely midnight. She wondered if Jenna would wake again before her dawn feeding. Her breasts throbbed a bit at the prospect of perhaps being able to feed their daughter while Emma watched.

 

* * *

 

Emma winced as she stared at the empty corner of the freezer. She must have been more tired than she thought. She had been certain there was one more bag of milk when she retrieved the previous one. But had that been Jenna’s second feeding already? The feedings were beginning to blur together and Emma couldn’t be sure.

Looking down into the cherubic face, Emma helplessly watched Jenna react to her increasingly demanding and clearly empty stomach. Fisted fingers curled and uncurled and Jenna’s face scrunched up. Emma tucked a tip of a finger between pursed lips and restless gums. She had learned to be fast, but noises escaped as Jenna realized more quickly now that a fingertip was neither real nor rubber nipple and would not supply her with warm satisfaction.

And there it was, just before Jenna squeezed her eyes hard shut in order to scream. Emma saw the narrowed lowering of a thin dark brow that had always presaged one of Regina’s rages.

Emma tapped the lips, the startle doing as she had hoped and quieting Jenna. “Alright, kidlet. Guess we better wake Regina.”

Soothing Jenna against her chest, Emma hurried up the stairs and strode to Regina’s door. She knocked. Leaning close to the wood, she listened. No sound issued forth. Which, Emma thought, was both good and bad. It was good, because it meant Regina was getting her needed sleep. As far as she could tell from Henry’s chatter over breakfast and dinner, Regina was tending to everything Jenna could possibly need during the day, but there were signs the housework was also being done, which meant Regina wasn’t taking advantage of Jenna’s naps to rest herself. Emma hadn’t found a solution to that problem yet, not knowing how to get someone to agree to clean Regina’s house, nor get Regina to agree to let someone else do it in the first place. And Regina wasn’t using magic. Henry said he would be able to tell.

Emma sighed and slowly pushed the door to Regina’s bedroom inward. Moonlight spilled through the room and illuminated Regina’s dark hair in the bed with an almost fairy-like light. Emma silently stepped closer, holding Jenna to her shoulder with a hand at the back of her head as she leaned.

“Regina,” she whispered. “Regina?” she asked again when the brunette did not stir.

The woman in the bed stretched and turned onto her back, drawing Emma’s attention to an expanding chest in a blue cotton nightie. The softly exhaled groan ignited Emma’s libido.

“It’s Jenna.” Emma forced her mind to the necessity at hand.

“Jenna?” Regina’s voice, husky and blurred by sleepiness rolled over Emma.

“She’s hungry. There are no more bags.”

“Bags?” And the disorientation squeezed at Emma’s heart.

“Yeah, I… I’ve been taking care of her at night. But she’s still hungry.”

Regina’s brow furrowed and then gradually relaxed. She looked up at Emma and Jenna. “I’ll take over from here.”

Emma flinched at the hard tone. “I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have woken you if --”

“Pass her to me before she cries again. It’ll upset her digestion.”

Emma winced and released Jenna into Regina’s arms quickly, taking a large step back. “I’m sorry, Regina… I swear… I’m… I’ll go.”

She was halfway to the door, in the no man’s land of the middle of the room, when Regina spoke again.

“I’ll need a cloth,” she said.

Emma escaped to the nursery with a shaky exhale. Pulling a cloth from the small dresser, she hurried back to Regina’s room. “Here you go.” She held it out like a shield before her.

Regina didn’t answer. When Emma ventured a look, lowering the cloth, she saw Regina sitting up fully in the bed with Jenna already at her breast. The gathered scoopline neck of the nightie had been pulled down and aside to allow Jenna to nurse. The baby’s tiny fist was causing a dimple of pressure on the top of the mound, dark head obscuring Regina’s nipple from view.

Regina’s head was downturned, watching Jenna. Quiet wonder shaped her lips into a soft smile and dark eyes glistened with moisture.

Swallowing hard, Emma approached. Regina looked up and the smile stayed in place a moment before the eyes took note of the cloth.

“Her belly will fill with too much air if you let her suck fruitlessly,” Regina said. “Next time, do not wait.”

Emma nodded and exhaled in relief, handing over the cloth which Regina took and flipped onto her shoulder. “I… yeah, two, however, has been enough.”

“She’s growing quickly,” Regina said, and there seemed, to Emma, an easing of the tension in the room.

She didn’t dare sit down yet though. But feeling safe in the mix of shadows and moonlight, Emma drank in everything about Regina and Jenna’s appearance while the baby continued to nurse.

“You’re here every night,” Regina said.

“Uh, yeah.”

“Where do you sleep?”

Emma dozed; she didn’t sleep. “I, uh, stay in Jenna’s room. I don’t want her to wake anyone up.”

“You can’t stay there,” Regina said flatly.

“I, uh…” But where else? Emma thought, looking up away at the window.

“You’re still keeping the loft apartment?”

“Yeah.” Emma caught her cat naps there between calls, and used the kitchen to make the few meals she had brought for Regina and Henry to eat when she knew they were tired of Granny’s fare.

“I’m getting stronger,” Regina said quietly.

Emma bit her lip. Regina was telling her her services were done. She wasn’t needed any more. “Uh, yeah.” Emma could feel tears biting at the back of her eyes and turned quickly before they should fall in front of Regina.

“Emma.” Regina’s voice again stopped her at the door. “You should rest.”

Emma couldn’t answer because of tears coursing down her cheeks. She quickly opened the bedroom door, and strode out, closing it quickly behind her.

 

* * *

 

The moon cast enough light for Regina to watch over Jenna in her bassinet. Following her feeding, Jenna had dropped quickly back to contented sleep and Regina had returned her to the nursery, still fretting over the conversation with Emma.

The blonde had been doing everything; it wasn’t right. And it wasn’t necessary, Regina thought earnestly. Regina wanted to share. Why didn’t Emma understand that?

Would she understand it more if Regina asked her to move in? But Regina didn’t want to face the possibility that Emma would refuse.

Because that didn’t seem to be what Emma wanted to do. The blonde behaved in the same way Regina often had as a young girl, wary of her mother’s reprisals. She behaved unobtrusively, determined to cause as little intrusion in Regina’s life as possible. She came by, she did things -- helpful things -- and then she left again, apparently seeing anything more as getting in the way.

Regina’s gaze flickered away from Jenna. She reflected on the look she’d seen in Emma’s face as the other woman watched her feed their daughter. A craving had pulled at Emma’s features. She wanted to be Jenna’s mother.

Regina saw the lighting change outside slightly and went to the nursery window. Down in the garden, Emma was adjusting herself under the apple tree, legs bent, arms around her knees, and head tipped back against the wood, staring up into its branches.

 

* * *

 

“Miss Swan!”

Emma banged her head against the bark and rubbed at it as she stood to face Regina striding across the lawn, dressing gown flaring open from her thighs at the speed of her walk.

“Regina?” Emma’s arms opened wide.  “You shouldn’t be out here. It’s too cold.”

“I will not have you outside,” Regina demanded.

“But there’s no place,” Emma replied.

“You’re here practically all the time anyway, Miss Swan. You will move in.”

“What’s the point?”

“I will not tell Jenna that her pigheaded and stubborn blond mother froze to death because she couldn’t bring herself to spend more than five minutes in my company.”

“Regina, I...” Emma started.

Regina wrapped her arms around herself.

“You need to get inside, please,” Emma begged. “I’ll go, just don’t…”

“I will go inside when you see reason,” Regina replied, though her demand was somewhat lessened by the sound of her teeth clattering together.

“Fine,” Emma replied. “Let’s get you back inside.”

 

* * *

 

Regina hesitated at the bottom of the stairs, her hand on the railing. Emma stood in the middle of the entry space looking lost. “The only beds in this house are upstairs,” Regina stated.

“I’ll… couch is fine.”

“So you don’t intend to continue helping me at night?” Regina countered.

“No, I… But you said I can’t sleep in Jenna’s room.”

“And so you shall not. My bed is large enough for the both of us.”

Emma blanched. “Regina.”

“I am not a hormonal teenager,” Regina said sharply.

Emma closed her eyes. What she heard was Regina saying she had no desire for Emma. Emma, however, still desperately wanted everything about Regina: to touch her cocoa skin, to taste her full red lips. “I’m here for Jenna,” she assured. “I won’t do anything to jeopardize that.”

“Just Jenna?” Regina asked. Emma’s head shot up as she walked toward the staircase. Regina’s eyes looked spooked, scared.

Emma said strongly, determined to be everything Regina needed, no matter what that was. “Whatever you need, Regina.”

A distinctly pained look twisted Regina’s features sharply before she brushed it away with a sweep of her hand and she preceded Emma up the staircase and into the bedroom.

Regina dropped the dressing gown and plunged the room into full darkness by turning off the lamp on her bedside table.

Grateful for the darkness, Emma shuffled to the far side of the bed and laid on top of the covers gingerly and uneasily.

The mattress moved. Emma turned her head toward Regina. In the shadows she thought she saw a small hand reach toward her arm. Adjusting herself quickly she turned onto her side, facing away from Regina.

The brunette’s tone was dry and raw. “Good night, Emma.”

“Night, Regina.”

 


	6. (Treading the) Dawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emma and Regina work their way through the morning routine with Henry and Jenna.

 

**(Treading the) Dawn**

The mattress never moved much, but Regina had been awake from the moment Emma rolled over to face away from her in the bed they shared. She was very careful not to refer to it as "their bed" even in her head. Not since she'd said the phrase aloud when informing Emma it was time to change the sheets, about three weeks into their uneasy arrangement.

Emma had gone white as her family name and stuttered that she would change them immediately. She'd sounded absolutely petrified. Regina resolved to never cause that tone to come out of Emma Swan's mouth ever again.

The thing was, for Regina, who had not shared a bed with a grown person willingly all night ever, sharing with Emma felt as natural as breathing. Emma's breathing. Regina felt the same comfort she had in Neverland when Emma slept beside her. It didn't seem to be the same for Emma. Each night the blonde inched into the sheets, facing away from Regina, pulled the sheet to her ears, hunched her shoulder and hugged the far side of the mattress with her lean frame. Regina had never considered Emma Swan small. After all, they saw eye to eye literally if not figuratively. But in the bed they shared, Emma looked as though she was frail and tiny.

After one of Jenna's midnight feedings, however, when Regina lay frozen in bed waiting for her return, Emma would slide into the cocoon of warmth and so near to Regina that she could feel the minute changes in position of the sheet as Emma breathed. She knew Emma was watching her. She felt the faintest brushes of warm air against her shoulder or face. She dared not open her eyes.

Emma had spooked once, leaving the bed as soon as their eyes had made contact, mumbling that she had heard Jenna crying. Regina instead had heard only the quaver in the low voice, the shakiness she knew from listening in Neverland to the girl who had confessed feeling so lost, if only under the cover of the darkness the two of them had shared away from the pirate and two idiots night after night.

She had held Emma then, and they'd had something… wonderful. Regina wanted to reach out, but now she was the one afraid. Afraid of consequences. Afraid of losing what little had been gained in the few shared hours of close silence between moonset and sunrise.

Knowing today Jenna was due for her six week appointment, Regina wanted to get herself together quickly. Emma still went to the sheriff's station daily to work patrols, and Regina would be required to put herself and Jenna into the car and drive them over to the hospital. But getting out of bed while Emma was expecting to be alone Regina felt would cause the blonde unnecessary anxiety.

So Regina waited and watched through slitted eyes as Emma stood and stretched, and worried at her bottom lip with teeth that gleamed enough to be seen in the vague light. She sat up only after Emma had shut the bedroom door with a careful click. Regina rose and stretched, leaning first against a wooden chair and then against the wall between the bedroom and the nursery, catching the sounds within the other room.

Listening intently, Regina smiled at the sounds of Emma tending to their daughter. Doing this had become a necessary part of Regina's day; it made her feel that this tensioned impasse would eventually end; she and Emma would form the family they both wanted. Emma, so clearly feeling herself safely alone with the baby, allowed herself a joy which Regina was all too aware she struggled to find any other time. This joy came out in little dances - the floor would actually shake, just a little. In an off-key voice, Emma sung little songs, clearly childhood stuff of this world. Regina drank in every note knowing Jenna was, at last, a pure source of happiness for Emma, even if she, Regina, was not.

Regina touched the tips of her fingers to her lips then to the wall. A kiss. "I'm so glad you found love, Emma Swan," she whispered. A painful tightening sent her hand to her chest; Regina gasped and pulled away from the wall.

Regina next heard Emma at Henry's bedroom door across the hall. "Rise and shine, Henry. Time for school." Sharp raps on wood followed the request.

Regina took this moment in the everyday routine to enter her bathroom and begin her day's preparations.

* * *

Emma leaned on the door frame until Henry opened it. As tall as Emma's shoulder now, he leaned out and kissed his sister on the temple. Jenna no longer startled and instead turned her head showing him her pacifier.

"Mom's not gonna like that," Henry said.

"Shh, your mom's still sleeping. It keeps Jenna quiet, just for the few minutes I need to get her downstairs."

Emma ruffled Henry's sleep-tousled hair that reminded her more of Regina than of Neal. Bae, she corrected in her mind still feeling the conflicting resentment and anxiety that always accompanied reminders of Henry's father.

"Downstairs, 'k? Five minutes. Dressed and your backpack."

"Yeah, yeah. I know. You're almost as bad as Mom used to be. I can handle this." He was smiling, but Emma winced.

"Henry," she corrected and shook her head. "Regina - your mom - is the best I've ever known." She curled her lip and thought unfavorably of other women who had declared themselves mothers, only to lack every positive quality Regina possessed.

"Hey, I know. I'm the one who always believed her about Jenna, remember?" Henry glanced to the master bedroom door. "How's she doing?"

"She sleeps all right, I guess." Emma considered the door and the woman behind it. She could faintly hear the water of a shower. That was a good sign. "I'd better get downstairs and start prepping." She turned at the top of the staircase and addressed Henry one last time. "You comin'?"

"Yep." Henry vanished back inside his room as Emma moved carefully down the stairs with Jenna.

Emma tucked Jenna into the cradle carrier set on the kitchen counter and talked happily at the girl while she played chase with tiny grasping fingers and toes. Gurgles Emma wanted to call giggles bubbled out of Jenna's mouth.

"I'll get your bottle, but your mom may be in need of feeding you, too." Each morning when she brought up breakfast, Emma saw Regina had wet spots in her nightgowns from leaking. Jenna was back to just one bottle a night, though she was eager to eat in the mornings.

Emma turned on the gas beneath a shallowly filled pot and added the bottle. While Jenna's breakfast warmed, Emma went back to the refrigerator and collected both breakfast and lunch-making supplies for the rest of their small family.

She hesitated in the middle of the kitchen as the thought crossed her mind. Shaking her head free of impossible wishes, Emma pushed herself onward. She was doing what was responsible and necessary. And Regina was allowing it. That would have to be enough.

Henry appeared dressed for the day in his school uniform just as Emma was turning off the gas burner and preparing to test the milk on her wrist. He nodded to her and seamlessly stepped up to finish packing his own lunch, an apple and a sandwich of cold cuts between two slices of whole wheat bread. A package of Twinkies, from Emma's private stash, and fifty cents from the coin jar for milk followed before he snapped the box lid shut. "All set."

Emma turned with Jenna in her arms, arranging the bottle to the baby's lips with one hand. "All right. So, homework?"

"I had two pages of math problems, fifteen pages of a novel to read for English, and a chapter of notes in U.S. History." He patted his backpack. "Done. Done. And done."

"What about the science reading?" Emma asked.

Henry rolled his eyes, just like Regina, Emma thought. "It was done before I left the station with you yesterday."

Wielding a spatula with one hand, Emma finished Henry's breakfast. "OK." Emma brought down a plate and gestured. Henry took it and helped himself to scrambled eggs and toast.

"Can I feed Jenna?" he asked.

"Feed your-" The house phone rang, interrupting Emma's instruction. She grabbed it even as she gestured to Henry with scooping motions. "Yes? Hello?"

"Emma, it's Dr. Whale."

"What's up?" Emma hesitated then handed Jenna and her bottle to Henry. "Just a bit, OK?"

"Yeah, sure." Henry eagerly cradled Jenna and held the bottle to Jenna's already sucking mouth. He made faces, puffing out his cheeks, while Jenna sucked noisily.

Emma returned her attention to the call. "So what's up?"

"I scheduled Regina for an MRI when she comes in with Jenna for her checkup today."

"Sure. But why?"

"We still need to understand what's going on. Unless she's gotten her magic back?"

"No. Not that I'm aware of, anyway," Emma replied.

"All right. So we go with traditional testing."

"OK. I'll let her know." Emma hung up the phone.

"Let me know what?"

Emma turned, almost gasping in surprise. Significantly she looked at Henry though she answered Regina. "That was Whale. Talking about tests at today's checkup."

"I see." Regina's brow dipped in frustration, and Emma felt her lip curl up at the familiarity of it, after seeing Regina so tired and without her usual fight these last few weeks. "I should probably eat breakfast before Jenna and I go."

"I'll take you," Emma offered quickly. "I was going to bring up your breakfast."

"I'd rather eat on the deck this morning."

"Oh. Of course. All right. Sure."

Before she had finished speaking, Emma saw Regina take Jenna from Henry, point him to his breakfast with a stern but loving, "You'll be late, dear," then she settled to another chair at the kitchen table with Jenna and the nearly empty bottle.

"You, uh? Need to feed her?" Emma asked. "I'm sorry about the bottle."

"Was it her last one?"

"There's another still in the refrigerator. She only woke once last night."

"She may start sleeping through the night," Regina said. "Henry did, at her age. Made things easier."

"Mom," Henry said, rolling his eyes over the forkful of eggs in his mouth.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, dear," Regina reminded him. He rolled his eyes again. And something in Emma broke. Or felt right, or something. Because she found herself laughing out loud.

She slapped her hand over her mouth as two sets of eyes turned to her. "Sorry."

"No, dear. It's all right."

"Okay." Emma subsided.

The clock in the hallway sounded a chime. "Time for me to get to school," Henry announced. He quickly scooped his last bite of eggs and grabbed the remaining half piece of toast.

He ran up to the sink and dropped in his plate with a discordant clank. He was hugging Emma before she had stopped wincing at the sharp sound. "Good luck," he said quickly.

Then before Emma could recover from the smirking look Henry gave her, he was pushing away from her and hurrying across the kitchen toward the table. His backpack however was not his first objective. He wrapped his arms around Regina's shoulders, bent his dark head against hers and hugged her. She lifted a hand to his on her shoulder and was still registering the gesture when he pulled away, smoothed Jenna's hair from her forehead, and kissed his sister. "Have a good day, Mom." He kissed her cheek as well.

"Have a good day at school, Henry," Regina replied as he straightened and grabbed his backpack. In her arms, Jenna wriggled, waved her arms and babbled her own farewell.

* * *

Regina fell quiet after Henry left. Not that she'd been talkative before, but she felt… She didn't know what she felt. She looked at Jenna who had finished her bottle and for the moment seemed content. Her breasts hurt with the need to express milk, but she could only sit there staring at her daughter, aware of Emma turning back to breakfast tasks just a few feet away. She desperately wanted to say something. Break this impasse between them.

"Henry finished his homework?" she asked.

"Yep."

"Did you check it, or just ask him?"

"I asked."

"Maybe he didn't do it."

"He did it."

Regina rose from the chair. "How do you know?" She hated the accusation that edged her tone.

"I know, Regina. I know because he's a good kid." Emma's back stiffened and her voice sounded resentful.

Holding Jenna to the side, Regina looked over Emma's shoulder. "Breakfast?"

"Yeah, eggs and toast are what I gave Henry. But I thought you'd prefer something a little more."

"That's an omelet." Regina noted cheese, bits of green pepper, onion, and mushrooms as Emma folded over the top.

"Yeah."

"You didn't have to do that."

Emma looked at her. "I wanted to."

Regina watched the pulse ticking erratically just beneath Emma's ear as the woman turned away from her to slip the omelet onto a plate. "Is there coffee?"

"Decaf is in the machine."

Regina sighed. "More of Dr. Whale's advice."

"He says you need to not stress."

"I know he thinks there's something wrong."

"There is, Regina. Those tests I mentioned when Whale called? They aren't for Jenna. They're for you." Emma slapped the plate down on a tray. Her hand, Regina noticed, was shaking. "You wanna eat on the deck?"

Regina nodded. Emma didn't hear anything and turned. Regina cleared her throat. "Yes, please."

Emma looked relieved. "Go ahead and sit down. I'll be right behind you."

Regina took herself and Jenna outside.

Emma followed. She had a blanket over one arm and set the tray down on the wrought iron white table next to the seat Regina had selected. "I'm just going to put this down for Jenna over here, so you can eat," she said. She spread the blanket over some of the deck stones near the table.

Regina transferred Jenna to Emma and watched the blonde's face light up as the baby's weight settled against her arms. She pulled back slowly and clutched her hands together in her lap, resisting the urge to wrap her arms around Emma's shoulders.

"You okay?" Emma asked. "Pain?"

Regina shook her head. Not the kind Emma was referring to anyway.

Emma placed Jenna belly down on the blanket and eased backward, remaining crouched, watching Jenna. Regina watched as well. The girl lifted her head and found Emma first. She gurgled and kicked her pajama covered feet, bobbing. Emma smiled; Jenna smiled back.

"You like that?" Emma asked Jenna. The feet kicked more excitedly. "Looks like you do."

Regina's glass clicked against the wrought iron surface as she set it down. Jenna's eyes darted to her. Regina smiled; Jenna tilted her head to the side and then began to roll onto her side, feet kicking and one hand reaching out. "Hello, Jenna," she called gently. "Are you a happy girl?"

Jenna's feet kicked more and the roll finished with the girl fully on her back. That, unfortunately, broke her line of sight with Regina, and Emma was too far to the side to be seen either. The tiny face screwed up and hands grasped at the air futilely as Jenna let out a fitful cry.

Regina lurched up from the chair, ignoring her pain. Emma hurried forward on her knees, and grasped Jenna's hands, drawing the baby's attention to her face. "Hey, hey, it's okay, kidlet. We're both right here."

Supporting the baby's head, Emma lifted Jenna and turned her in her arms so that she saw both of them. Regina gently stroked the side of Jenna's head. Her hands brushed Emma's wrist and fingers. Jenna gradually quieted as they both kept talking to her. Regina looked to Emma to gauge her reaction to her touch. Emma's face was turning down, away, a sadness pulling at the pale lips.

"Emma?" Emma didn't answer. Regina swallowed and spoke again. "Emma?"

"Yeah?" The tone was wary and the green eyes didn't look up.

"Thank you." There was a wealth of acknowledgement in those two words and she hoped Emma understood.

Emma's reply was a watery smile and closed eyes. Regina brushed a thumb over the woman's cheek, and caught the tear which leaked from beneath golden lashes.

#


	7. I Was Changed For Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emma accompanies Regina to the hospital and both learn what is has happened to the former Evil Queen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This completes the "Birth" series, begun oh so long ago.

**_Chapter 7:_ I Was Changed For Good** _(aka Birth 7)_

 

Emma eased away from the kiss, watching Regina's face for any sign of rejection. The brunette's eyes were closed. Boldly, Emma traced her thumb along the full soft lips. Long dark lashes fluttered and slowly lids lifted to reveal dazed brown.

Moisture gathered in the brown eyes. Emma licked her lips, begging her brain for what to say. She couldn't interpret the emotions as Regina's eyes darted between hers.

"Regina, I -"

An alarm bugled from somewhere.

As Emma rolled back onto her feet to track the source, Regina cradled Jenna to her chest and stood.

"Time to go," she said, and her voice sounded hoarse.

"I'll get the car," Emma said.

She hurried to the driveway while Regina gathered Jenna's things. Alone for the moment, Emma inhaled and exhaled, settling the roiling turmoil in her stomach that still lingered after their kiss.

There was a possibility, she thought. Maybe, just maybe, she and Regina could fix this and become the family Emma wanted to be.

Just as she was finishing checking the security of the belt catches holding the baby seat in the car, Regina appeared, walking down the front cobblestones to buckle Jenna into it.

It was a silent moment; Emma leaned back, and Regina leaned forward. Emma rested her hand on the small of Regina's back. There was a small shiver of the muscles, but the brunette did not move away until Jenna was secured in the safety seat.

As Regina straightened and turned, Emma pulled back her hand and walked quickly around to the driver side. Regina only watched a moment before slowly lowering herself into the passenger seat. Click. Click.

When Emma looked up from securing her belt, Regina was holding out the vehicle's key. Their fingers lingered in the exchange. Emma tried a smile, nervously swallowing back the lump that threatened to choke her until tears spilled.

She fumbled the key into the ignition.

Regina's hand rested on the center console padding. It migrated onto Emma's elbow when the blond put it there to turn and look out the back window to back the car down the driveway.

Emma's face held its tiny smile, pleased to be driving her family to the doctor. She didn't realize, until she went to add her right hand to the motion to steer into the hospital parking lot, that her fingers had intertwined with Regina's during the short ride.

A soft buzz of magic skittered up her arm and lodged in her chest.

She turned quickly away, flexing her fingers on the steering wheel and studying them as she maneuvered the Mercedes into a space. Once in park, she turned to pass the key back to Regina only to see the brunette studying her hands. Her downcast expression was too easy to read. Emma knew the answer, so she didn't bother to voice the question.

It was still only Emma's magic; Regina's had not returned.

Emma stepped out, sincerely wishing that Regina's magic would return, just so she could see a genuine smile from the other woman once again.

"I'd give mine to you if I could," she said.

Regina sighed, flexed her fingers, and quickly exited the car. Emma had Jenna in her arms before she could turn around, once more collected and her emotions safely tucked away.

"We're late," Regina said.

Emma said nothing as she followed Regina inside the hospital.

Whale was waiting for them. He started to direct Emma, with Jenna, to follow the nurse for Jenna's pediatric checkup. But Emma handed off the baby the second his hand landed on Regina's shoulder accompanied by a quiet, and gravely voiced, "Regina, this way."

Brown eyes studied her. Emma let her walls down, a silent plea for Regina to do the same, to let her in, to let her help.

Regina neither said neither no nor yes. She looked from Emma to Whale then turned for the door where they had been heading, walking away from both of them.

Emma followed first, followed by a querulous Whale.

* * *

Regina's hands went clammy at the sight of the scanning device Whale intended to use. It looked too much like… "No," she said firmly, stopping in the middle of the corridor outside the window of the room.

"It's the only thing we haven't tried," Whale stated. His voice wasn't cold, she admitted, but he didn't know - couldn't know - what was going through her mind:  _Owen, Tamara, so much pain_.

"No," Emma's voice surprised Regina. "There's always another option." The solidarity from Emma made Regina let out a small breath of relief.

"There is nothing else. Regina, from all indications your heart is deteriorating - rapidly. This is the only way we can really look at it to find out why."

"Emma could take it out," Regina said suddenly.

Emma looked panicked at the mere suggestion.

"I will teach you."

"And I could  _kill_  you. No," Emma replied. "Just… let me go first? I'll check it out."

Regina locked eyes with Emma, watching the blonde the entire time as a medical technician helped Emma lay down on the table -  _no straps, thank god_. The machinery whirred to life, the sound racing Regina's heart as she waited breathlessly. When the technician gave the all clear, Regina pushed past him to be at Emma's side helping her sit up.

The tingle between their fingers soothed Regina and Emma both. Emma wasn't too brave to admit that it had felt just a tad claustrophobic. But it had not been painful.

Regina gingerly lay down. Her fingers twined with Emma's. She felt Emma squeeze her fingers in reassurance, then slowly slip away. Staring at the ceiling, Regina heard Emma's boots on the parquet as she took a step back.

The machine surged to life, whirring, and then spitting sparks.

Emma yelled, "No!"

Regina's body flashed with energy. Shutting her eyes, she saw the edges of the darkness turn green, then all the lights went out, plunging the room into pitch blackness, and the machines grinded to abrupt silence.

Suddenly, Emma was there. A hand on Regina's foot, then her thigh, then her waist, and finally finding her hands. A squeeze was returned with another. Regina was tugged upright into a warm body, embraced hip to shoulder. She shook violently, shuttling between fear and relief.

The room's emergency lighting finally engaged. Regina clung to Emma, unwilling to let go and, feeling the way Emma rubbed her back, Regina realized the blonde felt the same.

Their eyes stayed closed, absorbing the contact and calm after the fright. Something slammed and they jolted apart to stare at Whale storming in through the doorway.

"What the hell was this?" he demanded, drawing to a confused halt, hands outstretched to his side.

Regina rubbed her eyes. The edges of her vision were shaded in golden color.

_No. Wait_. She looked down at herself, out at Whale, then over at Emma.

She and Emma glowed a deep golden color. Her hands flexed on Emma's arms in

surprise.

Reaching out, Regina felt the satiny separation as her fingers slipped through what appeared to be a veil of magic; where it stopped she felt tingles. The tips of her fingers were not golden outside the effect, and the golden glow seemed to collect and drip from her palm and fingers as she turned her hand.

Emma reached for her hand, drawing it back, mute in confusion.

Regina's hand retreated; she brought it to her chest as she felt the rhythm of her heart shift.

Emma's hand intercepted hers, there, over her left breast. Their gazes met and held.

Victor gasped in surprise when their two hands slipped out of sight inside Regina's chest. She closed her eyes, but Emma bent forward quickly, kissing her hard on the lips, and her eyes popped open again to see their hands together lift her heart from her chest.

"It's not like the others I've seen," Emma said. "Aurora's. Henry's."

It definitely wasn't as Regina herself recalled, having pulled it out to show Tink in Neverland. The mottled blackness was not entirely gone, but the red was rich. It kind of reminded Regina of a bruised apple. But it wasn't entirely red either. It was shot through with throbbing, pulsing veins of gold.

Emma captured Regina's lips again with soothing, soft kisses as her hand slipped the heart back inside behind Regina's ribs.

Regina spoke low, disbelieving, against Emma's shoulder as Emma folded her more tightly into her embrace. "It's not possible. It has to be some kind of…"

"It's totally possible," Emma whispered. "And yeah, it's magic. You wanna pull it out again and look at it? It's beautiful, Regina, just like Jenna."

She nuzzled Regina's cheek with her nose and whispered in her ear as tears streamed down both their faces.

"Just like you."

Regina felt her fingers tingling as she slid her hands down Emma's arms to clutch at her hands. "Let's go home?" she asked, feeling a trickle of trepidation at what she was about to attempt.

"Let's find Jenna," Emma affirmed with a blanket of trust in her voice which Regina hadn't been certain she'd ever feel wrap around her again.

Regina thought of her daughter - their daughter - and smiled as she felt her magic take hold of both of them, envelop them in gold and lavender swirls, and release them in the pediatric wing of Storybrooke Hospital.

* * *

The nurse holding Jenna on the exam bed for the pediatric specialist looked over her shoulder, a frown the only reaction to seeing the child's mothers appear only two feet away in a cloud of golden magic.

Emma silently applauded the woman's aplomb; she herself still disliked traveling this way.

But the smile on Regina's face made her collect Jenna and step back to Regina's side. "Take us home?"

The brunette wrapped one arm around Emma's lower back, and brushed Jenna's dark hair back from her eyes. The golden veil surrounded them again. Emma bent her head against Regina's and closed her eyes. "Home," Regina murmured and closed her eyes. The golden cloud shot through with lavender reappeared.

When it dissipated, they stood in the parking lot, about six feet from the Mercedes.

"I'm not leaving without my car," Regina chuckled, when she saw Emma's surprise. The brunette removed her keys from her purse and opened the doors. Emma laughed as she put Jenna in her car seat and then slipped into the passenger seat, buckling in.

Regina slid behind the driver's wheel; their hands entwined on the center console.

The play of the magic between them was sparks and swirls of gold and lavender. Jenna giggled at the sight. Emma and Regina turned back to smile at their daughter. It was, indeed,  _their_ magic.

###


End file.
